Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews lost his brother in Afghanistan, so when he publicly criticized Colin Kaepernick, his former college quarterback, for kneeling during the national anthem last season, his words carried extra weight.

But given time, Matthews’ perspective has changed. And he says there’s no doubt the lingering controversy is why the former 49ers quarterback remains a free agent.

“Being somebody who’s had a family member pass away in the military, I think a lot of people, even myself, looked at it the wrong way,” Matthews told The Tennessean on Thursday, in an about-face on the cusp of Memorial Day weekend. “But if you take a deeper perspective on it and understand what he’s doing, I think that he’s doing a great thing and I think that he’s definitely not on a team because of that.”

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Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality and the oppression of minorities in the United States spurred similar displays across the NFL and sports world at large. Several Titans last season routinely raised their fists after the national anthem in a show of solidarity.

Matthews, who led the Titans in catches, receiving yards and touchdowns last season, said Kaepernick’s protest has left the quarterback blackballed from the NFL.

“That’s the reality, whether you want to believe it or not,” Matthews said. “That’s the reality of it. I think he was a great quarterback, and I mean, he went to the Super Bowl. There’s other quarterbacks – not to dog any quarterbacks – but there’s other (lesser) quarterbacks on teams right now and the fact that he doesn’t have a job is kind of (messed up). I don’t know the contract situation, everything involved with it. But I think overall, the No. 1 reason is obviously what he did.”

Kaepernick and Matthews hooked up for 147 completions for 2,243 yards and 13 touchdowns over two seasons at Nevada, before being drafted in 2011 and ’12, respectively.

Matthews’ father served more than two decades in the Marines, and his half-brother, Christopher Ruiz, also a longtime Marine, was killed in a plane crash in 2015 while working as a private defense contractor in Afghanistan.

“Having a brother (lose his life overseas) and growing up military, at first I looked at it as a disrespect thing to the military,” Matthews said Thursday about Kaepernick’s protest, “because when you do that you’re kind of saluting the military, I think. But if you open up your mind and look deeper into what he’s doing, you’ve got to put all that stuff aside and realize that he’s doing something ... And I believe he’s made change. And I think he’s doing a great job off the field. If you pay attention to his Instagram and stuff like that, he’s not just talking about it; he’s having actions and stuff like that. So kudos to him.”

“I haven’t spoken to him in a while, but hopefully he continues to do his thing and hopefully somebody will put all that other stuff aside and take a chance and bring him on their squad.”

Matthews said his mindset about his former teammates' actions began to evolve last season, after he criticized Kaepernick in comments to reporters and a since-deleted Twitter post.

“I would say shortly after the comments I made, I probably went deeper into kind of what’s going on,” Matthews said. “I knew what he was doing, but I went deeper into it. And if more people would open up their mind and go deeper into it and start looking at it from a different perspective, then they would understand. But it is what it is. It’s America. They have to understand what African Americans have been through in this country and just have an open mind and a different perspective on the way that life really is for some people.

“At the end of the day now, people are sugarcoating stuff and afraid to keep it real. I’m not afraid to keep it real.”